Page 38 of The 24th Hour

“Sometimes,” said Dr. Aronson. “Not all people with DID have the same awareness of their alters. Mary Elena is not generally aware of their behaviors because when they become present, they ‘bump her away,’ and take over for her main personality. She does know a few and sometimes interacts with them. And some of these alters know one another.”

“Was Mary Elena born this way?”

“Not at all. DID is a protective mechanism developed by some victims of abuse and severe trauma. As with many patients I’ve seen who present with DID, the cause was gross sexual assault, which Mary Elena experienced as a child. I videotaped one of our recent sessions and I’ve given it to the prosecution. I think seeing this video will explain to the jury how Mary Elena’s psychological disorder came about.”

Defense Counsel Ed Schneider was on his feet. “Objection, Your Honor. Irrelevant. Dr. Aronson was not under oath and neither was his patient while this demonstration was made. It has nothing to do with my client or the charges against him.”

Yuki objected.

“Your Honor, Ms. Hayes’s disorder has everything to do with the case against Mr. Cates. We maintain that several of the plaintiff’s alters appeared during his assault on her and that he was aware that she was psychologically impaired. As such, she could not stand up to him and he took advantage of her mental disability.”

The judge said, “Objection overruled. Carry on, Ms. Castellano.”

CHAPTER 49

YUKI SAID, “DR. ARONSON, please continue.”

Aronson said, “By way of background, Mary Elena Hayes was under ten years old when she first suffered repeated sexual abuse by her grandfather, whom she called Oompah. Oompah lived in a house behind the Hayes house and would take care of the child in the afternoons while her parents were at work.”

Aronson continued, “I’ve brought a tape of a session I had with Mary Elena taken not long after she was beaten and raped in Xe Sogni.”

Yuki nodded at Gaines, and one of the court officers dimmed the overhead lights. Her number two positioned the projector toward a whiteboard that was visible to the jury, the judge, and a portion of the gallery.

A light was projected. The fan whirred and then a moving picture appeared on the whiteboard. In the video, Dr. Aronson sat in a lounge chair in a room painted pale blue. Mary Elena looked as she had looked in the courtroom but wasdressed more casually, wearing a large pullover, leggings, and moccasins. She sat in a chair across from Dr. Aronson.

On the tape, Aronson asked his patient, “What do you remember about Oompah?”

Mary Elena shook her head no.

“I’m recording this session, Mary Elena. Please talk to me so I can compare your early memories with your current ones and evaluate your progress.”

Mary Elena looked down at her clasped hands in her lap and very softly said, “Okay.”

Her psychiatrist said, “Try going back in time. Place your younger self in the kitchen of the house where you grew up. Tell me what you see and hear and feel.”

“I’ve told you.”

“I know. Please tell me again.”

“’K. The school bus has just brought me home,” said present-day Mary Elena in a childlike voice Yuki recognized as belonging to Lily. “The house is empty except for Oompah.”

“How old are you?”

“I think, second grade.”

“Seven or eight?”

Mary Elena nodded, and her doctor asked, “What does he say to you?”

“Oompah says, ‘Hello, darling, how did school go today?’ I say, ‘It was good. A dad came in for show-and-tell and showed us how to make a whistle, with two fingers and a blade of grass.’”

Dr. Aronson said, “And then?”

“I start to go to my room, but Oompah gets between meand the kitchen doorway. He says he’s gotten me my favorite snack. Chocolate pudding and Oreos.”

The camera in Dr. Aronson’s office was steady. A phone rang in an outer room and was answered. Traffic sounds came into the room from the street, but the camera stayed on Dr. Aronson leaning forward in his chair to better hear Mary Elena, speaking in Lily’s high-pitched and wispy little-girl voice.

She told her doctor that Oompah gave her the snack in the kitchen and said that he’d spent all morning sorting out inventory in his hardware store and he was awfully tired. He then asked Mary Elena if she was ready for her nap. From the expression of stark fear on Mary Elena’s face visible on the recording, she knew what was coming from her previous experience with Oompah. And she was remembering that resisting him would fail.

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